I know the handle Dean! I bought a '65 Ford station wagon from a neighbor here just for the 289 engine that I wanted for my '69 Bronco. The wagon had a 3-spd w/overdrive with that cable control and got 25mpg on the highway. It was near mint, didn't have any rust on it and had all new glass. I gave it away after removing the engine. I was soooo tempted to keep it. It had been undercoated and didn't have ANY rust underneath and the interior was like new. Pete had parked it when something went wrong with the transmission, which I discovered was just a sheared bolt that held one of the shift levers onto the txmission and would have taken him about 15 minutes to fix. Apparently he never crawled under to find the problem. The engine was a project. I got it all installed in the Bronco and it wouldn't turn over - damn. The lifters and valves and lord knows what else were rusted up so I reverted to my hillbilly mechanic days from when I was 12-16 yrs old and started pouring oil all over the top end and slowly turning it over with a breaker bar and cheater on the balancer. When valves stuck and wouldn't retract and seat I dumped more oil on them and beat them loose with a big wooden mallet until they all moved to my satisfaction then folded the hood out of the way against the windshield and dumped motor oil and gasoline down the carb and started cranking it over and the fun began. It started with a few minor explosions and belched rust, black oily smoke and flames about 3ft high out the carb and exhaust for a while as it came to life, but after a few minutes and one minor grass fire was purring like at least a John Deere and I reckoned we were in business! Down went the hood and away we went for a test ride. After a few miles of sputtering and backfiring it smoothed out and ran like a new car. I wouldn't have been happier in a new Caddy! Eventually I pulled it out and creatively installed the 170CI 6-cyl out of my '66 Bronco in it. The V8 had too much power. I'm still using the Bronco for plowing snow, for which it is perfect. We definitely have some history together....
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